


akaito

by orphan_account



Category: Ensemble Stars! (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-01-29
Updated: 2017-01-29
Packaged: 2018-09-20 16:21:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 892
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9499892
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Shu and Mika are not soulmates.(update: i lost all motivation to ever finish this, sorry. gonna orphan and forget about it instead)





	

1.

Shu is not Mika's soulmate.

It's obvious from the moment he first takes Shu's offered hand — there's no spark, none of the electric feeling that soulmates are supposed to share at first touch. Both their wrists remain unblemished, no soulmate mark appearing to bind them to each other.

That's okay. It's not like Mika thinks much about soulmates anyway. At least not when more pressing concerns loom, like his time as a runaway coming to an end and being sent back to his home in Kansai, now that the Itsuki household has gotten into contact with them.

In fact, he doesn't even think about it at all until much later back in Kansai, when he remembers that the entire reason he ran away to Tokyo at all was in the hopes of finding his match.

2.

They keep in touch, over the years.

Shu dislikes communicating through technology, and Mika is the only one who will indulge his fancy of keeping a paper penpal, he says. So they send each other letters, handwritten lines updating each other on their mundane lives from time to time.

Mika regales Shu with stories about life in his tiny, quiet town out in the suburbs. Shu replies with anecdotes of his misadventures in the city (often accompanied by the friend he calls Ryuu-kun, whom Mika has never met but he likes to imagine as a gruff, sturdy boy). Mika often tells Shu about his dreams to move to Tokyo one day and experience life in the big city, and in return Shu expresses longing for Mika's idyllic, undisturbed lifestyle, as he puts it. Like this, they pass several years talking to each other.

Meanwhile, Mika's wrist remains unmarked. It's not much of a surprise — the town is small enough that he knows everyone in it, and he's already come into contact with all of them in his childhood with no changes.

Like most of the other children in the town, he longs to leave and get somewhere with a higher chance of meeting his soulmate. So when Shu mentions applying to a special idol high school, Mika jumps at the chance to return to Tokyo and meet Shu again. Over the next year, they slowly work out their plan through written letters, both of them determined to prove to their respective families that they can make this work. Near the end of the year, Mika finally works up the courage to ask his approach his parents, and receives their permission to move to Tokyo, stay with Shu's family and attend Yumenosaki.

3.

When Mika next meets Shu in person again, his eyes unconsciously stray to the mark on Shu's wrist. _Oh,_ he thinks, his stomach doing a flip that is most definitely the fault of the train he's just disembarked.

He's tempted to ask Shu who is it, but he's too busy with moving into the Itsuki family house and preparing to actually enroll to find a quiet moment to bring it up. And anyway, he gets his answer just a few days later, when Shu immediately tracks him down after the first day of school and declares that Mika is joining Valkyrie. (It's not an invitation, but a statement.)

 _Oshi-san,_ Nazuna calls him. Mika tries out the phrase, and finds he likes the way it sits on his tongue. Shu gives him a strange look when he first uses it, but he doesn't say anything and so it makes its way into Mika's vocabulary.

"Oshi-san!" he calls out, and tries to ignore the pit in his stomach that forms every time he sees Shu smile at Nazuna. The way Shu takes Nazuna's hand gently, and the matching patterns of red thread that encircle both their wrists, have nothing to do with it at all. Absolutely not.

4.

His own mark comes at an unexpected moment.

"Mika-chaaan~" Arashi trills, sliding into the chair next to him. It's the first day of class, and after stuttering out an awkward self-introduction Mika has spent the rest of the period just trying to blend into his seat.

"Um, yer... Narukami, right?" Mika shoots a quick glance over, then drop his gaze just downwards of meeting Arashi's eyes, nervously smoothing his fringe over his left eye to hide its color.

"Yep! Call me Naru-chan!" Arashi grins. "Heeey, I heard there's a cafe which serves pretty good sweets somewhere in this school. I know it's the first day and all, but want to ditch and go look for it?"

"Huh? I, um, uh..." Mika fumbles, unsure of how to respond, but without waiting for an answer, Arashi leans over and grabs his hand, getting up to pull him towards the door.

It's instantaneous. A momentary lancing pain through his hand, almost like a static shock, makes Mika yelp and pull back sharply, only to blink at the pattern of flowers now encircling his wrist. Arashi reacts first, choosing to dash towards Mika and happily throw his arms around his shoulders.

"Gwah— Naru-chan!"

"Hehe~ I was a little bit upset that Kunugi-sensei was already taken, you know? But you seem like a nice boy, so I guess I don't mind if it's you." Arashi releases Mika from the hug, giving him a wink instead. "Sooo~ what about that cafe? We can talk and get to know each other better first, hm?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> confession: i've actually never liked soulmate aus. then a while ago i read a fic with a slightly different take on them, and realized i only like them when they're not being played straight. so this happened.
> 
> the title, _akaito_ , refers to the red string of fate — you know the one. the concept of a red string of fate doesn't actually show up in this fic, but i needed a title and the idea of valkyrie tangled up in red threads just fits too well.
> 
> come to talk to me on twitter at [@dauntingdeletor](https://twitter.com/dauntingdeletor)


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